Gemotions

"The spare room is ready for you, dear," her father boomed, his voice echoing through the hallway. The words, intended to be welcoming, had the opposite effect. The spare room, filled with hand-me-down furniture and dusty decorations, felt like a prison cell.

He followed his father upstairs, his steps hesitant, each creak of the floorboards amplifying the silence. The weight of his past failures, his broken relationships, his dwindling finances, settled heavily on his shoulders. He felt the familiar pressure in his skull, the feeling of being utterly lost, of having no control over his own life.